Low-vision keiki get help from artist, nonprofit

For all that art has meant to her life, Amy Monthei is simply unwilling to let something as addressable as visual impairment prevent kids from discovering, appreciating and — most important — participating in whichever art form might tickle their imagination most.

An accomplished professional visual artist, Monthei has been working with the Alabama-based nonprofit Sight Savers America to connect visually impaired children in Hawaii with high-tech assistive devices that might otherwise prove too expensive.

Monthei provided on-the-ground support and coordination for the organization’s first foray into Hawaii, a collaborative effort with Teachers of the Visually Impaired, Imua Family Services and Dr. Kellen Kashiwa of the Retina Eye Institute of Hawaii which helped to identify qualified children in Hawaii and provide them with ONYX electronic video magnifiers (which can magnify images up to 130 times) and, in one case, a pair of telescopic glasses.

The organization has identified some 60 children in Hawaii whose low vision cannot be sufficiently improved by glasses, contact lenses or conventional medical procedures. The initial donation to seven of these children was made two months ago with the support of the Maui Jim sunglasses company. Sight Savers hopes to partner with other organizations over the next few years to more provide assistive devices to qualified children.

“This equipment is life-changing,” Monthei said. “Our main drive is to help kids with their education, but these devices also help with all the other day-to-day stuff.”

Monthei’s devotion to the cause is the culmination of a lifetime of unique preparation.

Both of Monthei’s parents are blind. In near-fairy-tale fashion, they met at a national convention for the blind and began corresponding. As their romance quickly blossomed, they exchanged visits so each could meet the other’s parents in person. The fourth time they were together in person was weeks later at their wedding.

“They’ve been married now for 47 years,” Monthei says proudly.

Both parents have a deep appreciation for art. Monthei’s mother, who has 10 percent vision in one eye, is an oil painter who teaches independent-living skills to the blind. Her father is an occupational therapist whose creative impulses are expressed in high-level woodworking.

As Monthei recalls, the family didn’t always have a lot of money, but that didn’t prevent her parents from making sure there were always ample art supplies available for her and her two sisters.

Monthei was born with cataracts and had both lenses removed when she was just a few months old, leaving her legally blind. In a household where both parents refused to accept blindness as an excuse not to do something, she happily indulged her passion for art at an early age. She sold her first art piece at age 9 and has spent the years since refining her skills in acrylics, watercolor, pencil, conte, charcoal, ink, pastel andother media.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from what is now Grand View University in her native Des Moines, Iowa, Monthei spent several years in Minnesota connecting local artists with corporate collectors.

During a vacation in Hawaii in 2005, Monthei and her husband, Brian Huffman, made a half-joking pact to move to the islands if Huffman could ever find work here. The move became a reality when Huffman traded his work as an attorney for a degree in library information science and landed a job as an electronic services librarian at the University of Hawaii’s William Richardson School of Law.

Here, Monthei has continued to push the boundaries of her own artistic vision in ways that are particularly inclusive of those with visual impairments. She specializes in mixed-media and abstract Braille painting, which allow for a tactile experience of the art.

It was Monthei’s unique art that first drew the attention of Sight Savers founder Jeff Haddox, who two years ago commissioned Monthei to create a work of art for its annual Hero for Sight event. Her piece “Sensory Reflections: Share the Vision — grade b Braille” remains on permanent display at the University of Alabama-­Birmingham’s Callahan Eye Hospital.

To view Monthei’s art work, visit Monthei Fine Art on Facebook. For more information on Sight Savers America, visit sightsaversamerica.org.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.